


It Was An Accident!

by Liz_87



Category: Casualty (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:47:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24538723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liz_87/pseuds/Liz_87
Summary: Not exactly the "quiet night in" that they planned..! Series 32.
Relationships: Lisa "Duffy" Duffin/Charlie Fairhead
Kudos: 4





	It Was An Accident!

It was 11.15pm during a quiet Thursday night shift and Connie was sat in her office catching up on paperwork when suddenly there was a knock at the door. 

"Come in!" She called. 

David opened the door and entered apprehensively. "Um, I'm sorry to interrupt you Mrs Beauchamp but I, er, need you to come deal with a couple of patients who've just arrived." 

She sighed, got up from her desk and followed David out of her office. She followed him through to the reception area and was totally unprepared for the sight that greeted her. 

Charlie and Duffy were stood, just about, in front of her near the reception desk. Charlie's arm was slung over Duffy's shoulders and he was slumped against her slightly. Duffy spotted Connie and attempted to walk towards her but was hampered in her efforts by her husband who was singing, his hand attempting to work it's way under the hem of her dress that fell a mere couple of inches below her bottom and the 6 inch stilettos she was wearing. 

Staring at them, Connie's mouth fell open. "What the hell happened?" 

Exchanging a guilty glance, the pair began to giggle. Duffy shushed Charlie, turned to Connie and began to speak. "Um, well, er, we were, er..." She looked at Charlie. "Um, he fell over!" She giggled, her voice slurring slightly. 

Though stood a couple of feet away from them Connie could easily smell that they both stank of alcohol. "Fell over how?" She questioned.

"It was her fault!" Charlie declared loudly. Duffy shushed him again, elbowing him in the side causing him to groan in pain. He lent closer to her ear but the alcohol he'd consumed caused him to forget to lower his voice. "Oh you want to play rough again, do you? That's fine by me!" 

"Charlie!" She squealed and then giggled as he began to kiss her neck. Attempting to focus through the fog of alcohol and increasing arousal, Duffy tried to fix her eyes on Connie's face. "It was my fault, I asked him to fix a shelf," Charlie's mouth reached a sensitive spot on her neck, causing a slight moan to escape her lips. "Charlie..! Oh! Um, yeh a shelf, it fell down, the shelf, on the floor..." She mumbled drunkenly. 

Connie raised an eyebrow. "A shelf? It's 11 o'clock at night..." 

"It was an accident!" Duffy replied plaintively.

"She doesn't know her own strength." Charlie slurred with a big grin on his face. 

"Um, quite!" Connie replied. "Shall we get you both into cubicles so we can check you haven't done anything too serious? David, can you take Charlie please?" 

David placed Charlie's free arm around his shoulders and took over from Duffy in supporting him to walk to cubicles. She began to follow them but the alcohol in her system decided to conspire with her shoes causing her to weave and stumble. She would have fallen to the floor had it not been for Connie's quick movements, darting an arm out in the older woman's direction to catch hold of her and steer her in the right direction. 

Reaching an empty cubicle David helped Charlie to lie down on his front on the bed whilst Connie helped Duffy into a chair alongside. Placing a pair of gloves on she turned to examine Charlie. She immediately noticed a nasty cut on the back of his head. Moving her hands to examine it more closely she heard Charlie let out a hiss of pain as she prodded the wound. "How did you do that?" She queried. 

"Coffee table." Duffy replied, hiccuping loudly. 

"Did you lose consciousness Charlie?" She questioned.

"No, just hurts." He mumbled in reply. 

"Ok, I'm still going to send you for a head CT just to rule out the possibility of a serious head injury but first I'm gunna check your back ok?" 

Lifting his shirt she raised an eyebrow at the numerous scratch marks that covered Charlie's shoulders and back. Connie glanced over at Duffy surmising that the long red nails she now sported were likely fake and responsible for the cuts on Charlie's back. Shaking her head she began to examine his spine, causing him to wince and groan as she touched the areas that were already beginning to bruise. She was about to ask David to order some tests when the sound of a strangled hiccup was heard from Duffy's direction. Turning to face her, Connie was able to move her foot out the way just in time before Duffy vomited on the floor. 

"Ok, David, is the cubicle next door free?" He quickly checked and nodded that it was. "Right, can you help Duffy into there and give her a bowl in case she's sick again?" Once he'd got her settled, Connie spoke again. "Right can you give her some I.V. antiemetics and fluids? I'll come examine her as soon as I'm done with Charlie." David left the cubicle to gather the necessary supplies while Connie turned her attention back to Charlie. "Right, does anywhere else hurt?" 

"No, I'm fine." He replied.

"Ok, I'm going to organise a CT scan for you. I'll be back shortly to examine you Duffy, ok?" She exited the cubicle leaving the couple alone. 

Charlie looked over at Duffy. She looked pale and had gone quiet. "How you feeling?" 

"I'm never drinking whisky again." She slurred quietly before vomiting once more. 

"This evening was your idea!" He remarked. 

"Doing it against the wall wasn't! That was you!" She pointed out. 

He chuckled. "Can't help it, you're too sexy." 

David cleared his throat awkwardly as he and Connie re-entered the cubicle at just the right moment to overhear Charlie's comment. They went over to Duffy to begin examining her. "Can you take your jacket off please?" Connie requested. 

Duffy's eyes went wide and she started to blush. "Can't, too cold." She mumbled. 

"It won't take that long to examine you and then you can put it back on again." Connie replied in a frustrated tone. Duffy reluctantly undid the jacket and took her right arm out of the sleeve. As she did it was revealed that in addition to being very short, the dress that Duffy was wearing was incredibly low cut and although she was not naturally large chested, the fabric was struggling to keep her breasts from spilling out, a situation not helped by the red wonderbra she was wearing, the fabric of which could be seen poking out over the neckline of the dress. 

Connie noticed several small bruises across Duffy's chest and lower neck area. She reached out to touch one, causing Duffy to wince. Connie quickly realised the marks were lovebites and rolled her eyes at the couple. 

Clearing his throat awkwardly David spoke. "Um, Duffy, I'm going to need to you remove your left sleeve too, so I can, um..." He gestured to the cannulation set he had brought into the cubicle on a trolley. Her blush increasing, Duffy reached over and began to lower her sleeve in the direction of her wrist. As she did so Connie noticed a large red area on her elbow. She was about to examine it more closely when she was distracted by the sound of metal clanking against metal as Duffy finished removing her jacket. Turning to look, Connie was surprised to see that attached to Duffy's left wrist was a set of handcuffs. She regarded the other woman with a raised eyebrow. Duffy, however, refused to meet Connie's gaze and instead lowered her head and stared at the bowl she held in her lap. 

"Do either of you happen to still have the keys on you?" Connie asked in an aspirated tone. 

Charlie began to laugh. "Back pocket." 

"David, can you..?" Connie gestured towards Charlie. 

"Um, yes..." He replied and walked over to retrieve the key. Undoing the handcuffs, David quickly stuffed them and the keys into Duffy's jacket pocket. He then inserted the cannula into her hand and set up the drip. Connie noticed that the red marks she'd seen earlier were in fact on both of Duffy's elbows. Examining them closer, she noticed they actually looked more like burns. "How did you get these?" 

Duffy stammered, trying to come up with a plausible excuse but before she could, Charlie interrupted. "She did them on the carpet. Those aren't the only places she's got them either..!" He responded with a dirty laugh. 

"Charlie, shut up!" Duffy pleaded. 

"We'll deal with that later, I think. Do you have any other injuries I need to check?" 

"I, um, smashed my knees when I, er, fell over." 

"You fell over too?" 

"He pulled me over!" She pouted, waving an accusing finger at Charlie. 

"Er, no! You fell onto me!" 

"You started it!" 

"Well what the hell did you expect to happen when I come home from work to find you dressed like that?!" He reached out his hand towards her, but realising he couldn't reach his arm flopped back to his side. "Urgh! You're too far away Duffs! Come here!" 

"No, you can come here. Good luck with that though..!" She smirked, sticking her tongue out at him and giggling mischievously. 

"Just you wait til my back's better, I'll give you a..." 

"That's quite enough of that, thank you!" Connie interrupted sharply. "This is not the kind of behaviour I expect from my two most senior nurses!" 

"Oh lighten up Connie! We're not at work, well we are, but, we weren't when we... but we are now so... um..." He shrugged, having lost track in his drunken rambling. 

"Anyway, I'm going to need you to lower your tights Duffy so I can take a look at your knees." 

Sighing, Duffy shifted slightly, wincing as she did so, so that she could roll up the hem of her dress. In doing so she revealed that instead of tights she was actually wearing stockings. She unclipped them from the suspender belt and rolled them down to her shins. 

Charlie crained his neck to try and see around Connie but could only catch the merest glimpse of his wife's shapely legs. 

Duffy's knees were covered in spectacularly coloured bruises, she'd clearly landed with some force when she fell. She squealed in pain as Connie prodded the bruised area to check for any breakages. She looked up at Duffy. "Just bruises. It's going to hurt when you walk until they've healed but you were lucky not to badly damage your kneecaps. At your age you need to be more careful, you're at increased risk of complications arising from osteoporosis post menopause..." 

"Oi! I'll have you know that my wife is full of youth and vi-vi..." 

"Vitality?" David suggested helpfully. 

"... That! Aren't you kid?" 

Connie hadn't thought it possible that Duffy's face could get any redder but it did. Having surmised that any further injuries that Duffy had sustained must be of a more personal nature, Connie turned to David. 

"Can you take Charlie over to CT for his scan whilst I finish dealing with Duffy?" 

A few minutes later, once the men had left, Connie turned to Duffy once more. "Right, so where are the rest of these burns then?" 

Duffy bit her lip and looked sheepish. "I'm sat on them." She mumbled. 

Connie sighed. "Do you need help rolling over or can you manage?" 

Duffy rolled her eyes. "I can manage fine, thanks." She replied tartly.

Once she'd rolled over, Connie lifted up the hem of Duffy's dress and immediately spotted two areas of angry looking red burns. She quickly examined them before motioning to Duffy that she could sit back up. "They're pretty standard carpet burns, just keep them clean and they'll heal up on their own. Take some pain killers if they're causing you discomfort." Duffy nodded mutely, avoiding making eye contact with Connie throughout the entire exchange. "I'm going to go check on some other patients while we wait for Charlie to come back from CT. I'll be back then." She turned and left, swishing the curtains closed behind her. 

Duffy had been left alone for about five minutes and was beginning to feel quite sleepy when suddenly the curtain swished open again to reveal Elle stood with a huge grin on her face. 

"Wow! I was convinced Louise was making things up! You look like you've had quite a night so, come on, spill!" She perched on the end of Duffy's bed and looked at her expectantly. 

"It was an accident!" 

Elle laughed. "Yeh, yeh, course it was! This is me you're talking to now, not Connie! You can't fool me, what happened?" 

"We were just having a quiet night in and then there was a minor accident, that's all!" 

"Hmm, that's what you normally wear for a 'quiet night in' is it?" Elle laughed. 

Duffy gave her an unimpressed sideways glare in response and folded her arms. 

"I like the dress btw, it looks great on you. I bet Charlie thought so too when he got home." Elle winked at Duffy and nudged her leg. 

Laying her head back on the pillow, Duffy closed her eyes. She hoped that if she pretended to be asleep then Elle would get bored and stop asking questions. Her hopes were shattered moments later when Elle spoke again. 

"Just coz you're drunk doesn't mean you can fall asleep to get out of spilling the beans!" 

"I'm not drunk!" Duffy protested. 

"Oh really, so how come I heard you narrowly avoided vomiting all over Connie's cost-more-than-either-of-us-earn-in-a-month Louboutin's? Explain that Mrs Fairhead!" 

Duffy shrugged, blushing furiously. "Maybe I caught a bug?" 

"Oh come on Duffy! What really happened?" 

"Ok, ok, one of the shelves in the lounge fell down." 

"It just fell down? Of its own choosing? Duffy..!" 

"It fell down and I asked Charlie to fix it." 

"Was that before or after you decided to open the bottle of whisky?" 

"We may have had a glass or two..."

"Or three or four..." Elle chuckled. 

"I'm not drunk!" Duffy complained. 

"Whatever you say! So how did Charlie manage to hurt himself?" 

"He fell over." Duffy giggled. 

"And you? How did you hurt yourself?"

"He fell into me." 

"Knocking you to the ground causing you to bruise your knees and scrape the backs of your elbows?" 

"Yes." 

"Duffy, I'm a doctor, that's not physically possible..!" 

"It's not?" Duffy replied, looking genuinely confused.

"No. The position of the injuries would suggest two separate accidents." Duffy still looked confused. "Duffy, just tell me what happened! It can't be that bad..!" 

"Oh it can." Duffy mumbled.

"Don't be silly, we've all fallen over drunk from time to time. It's not like you were having sex at the time..." She saw the colour instantly drain from Duffy's face. "Omg, I knew it!"

"Elle..!"

"So how come Charlie's ended up down at CT? What the hell did you do to him?!" 

"Nothing! He hit the coffee table." 

"Oh it gets better!" 

"After he fell over Elle!" 

"No wonder you didn't want to tell people what actually happened!" 

They heard Charlie and David's voices approaching the neighbouring cubicle. 

"Right, I'd best be getting back. I'll be wanting more details when I next see you so don't think you've gotten away with it!" She left the cubicle, chuckling to herself. 

Duffy waited a few minutes til she heard David leave Charlie's cubicle. Reaching over, she disconnected the empty drip bag and attempted to stand up from the bed. It took a couple of attempts and a lot of wobbling but she eventually managed it. Taking a deep breath she attempted to focus on the task at hand - putting one foot in front of the other. She was a grown woman, surely she could manage to walk six feet to the next cubicle? She took a first step and wobbled. Why had she thought these shoes were a good idea? Because Charlie had said she looked sexy in them, that's why. Her thoughts of Charlie reminded her of why she'd stood up in the first place, she needed to go see him, make sure he was ok. 

Using the wall for support she slowly made her way forwards. She eventually reached the curtain and pushed it aside. Charlie was sat on the bed with his eyes closed but he immediately opened them on hearing the curtain move. 

"Hi!" He smiled. 

"How you feeling?" She asked as she reached his bed, leaning on the rail for support. 

"Better for seeing you." He replied, reaching his hand out and placing it on top of hers. 

"I'm so sorry!" She blurted out, looking very upset. 

"Hey, I'm ok." He reassured her. "You ok?"

"Yeh, fine." 

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Actually my lip hurts, I need a nurse to kiss it better." He gave her a devilish grin. 

Duffy pushed down the railing and lent forward to kiss him. The kiss quickly deepened until Duffy pulled back, hissing in pain as Charlie's hand reached her bottom and groped it. He looked briefly surprised but then remembered. "Shit! Sorry!" He began to grin again. "Want me to kiss it better for you?" She laughed and moved forward so she was partially sat on the bed allowing her to kiss him more easily. Charlie moved his hands from her bottom up her side til they were cupped over her breasts. He began to massage them through the fabric of her dress, causing Duffy to moan against his lips. He ran a finger along the inside edge of her bra and was in the process of pushing the straps down her arms when the curtain reopened and Connie walked in. 

Connie loudly cleared her throat to get their attention. Duffy jumped backwards, almost falling from the bed in the process. As she steadied herself she felt the front of her dress slipping down. Blushing, she grabbed hold of it and attempted to rearrange it properly. Charlie simply regarded Connie with a disgruntled facial expression, she'd interrupted them just as it had been getting interesting! 

"If you're quite finished, I feel your behaviour this evening has been appalling! You have both behaved extremely unprofessionally and have embarrassed yourselves, this department and this hospital! Once I've finished discharging you I want you to go home and have a good long think about how you behaved and presented yourselves tonight. I will expect to see both of you in my office at the start of your next shifts. Is that understood?" She didn't wait for them to reply, instead whirling to face Duffy. "As for you, Sister Duffin, I have been particularly shocked by your behaviour! Coming into the department looking more like a prostitute than a senior nurse. I shall be curious to see how you intend to claw back any kind of respect from your junior nurses during your next shift!" 

Duffy's mouth fell open in shock at Connie's words. Her brain whirled trying to form the words to a reply but she was too shocked. She suddenly jumped, however, as she heard Charlie begin to lose his temper and start shouting next to her. 

"How dare you! We, we, were, at home. We came here, because, we, we had no choice. And you stand there and have a go at her for it! You may be the boss of this department Connie. But you have no say over what happens outside of work. And have no right to speak to my wife like that!" 

"Charlie, I am..." Connie interrupted. 

"NO! I won't hear another word! You're out of order Connie. You talk about respect? Pfft! You've never shown her one ounce of respect the whole time she's worked here! Why? Hmm?" 

"Charlie?" Duffy voiced. 

"No, Duffy it's about time she realised there is more to life than this department. It wasn't until Duffy came back into my life, did I realise that myself. And I wouldn't change that for anything. Duffy and me have a life together outside of here. And it's about time you understood that! Or is it because you don't, you've got a grudge against us for living our lives? If you don't change Connie you'll end up sad and alone. Come on Duffy, let's go home. I've had enough of all this." 

He let out a breath, having exhausted himself with his tirade. Turning towards Duffy he reached out his arms to her. Equally tired, she gratefully relaxed into his arms, resting her head against his shoulder. 

Connie watched the two of them embrace and felt suddenly awkward. "I'll just get your discharge paperwork sorted." She declared before spinning on her heels and storming out of the cubicle.

Connie arrived back at their cubicle a few minutes later with their discharge paperwork. "Your CT results came back fine so you're both free to go home once you've signed these." She said, handing the clipboard to Charlie. He glanced at the form and signed the bottom before handing it to Duffy. She made an attempt to read the words in front of her but quickly gave up and signed the form before handing it back to Connie who then handed a paper bag containing painkillers to Charlie to take home with them. Without another word, she turned and left the cubicle. 

Charlie and Duffy slowly rose from the bed and, placing their arms around each other for support they attempted to quietly and descretely leave the hospital. Luckily for them their colleagues seemed to all be distracted with other tasks so no-one stopped them on their journey to the exit. Once outside the icy breeze hit Duffy, causing her to shiver. Charlie pulled her closer and they began to weave their way across the carpark. 

"Well, that's not how I imagined our evening turning out!" Charlie chuckled. 

"For the last time, it was an accident!" Duffy wailed. 

"I still can't believe you pulled that shelf down all by yourself!" 

She giggled. "Next time I'll be more careful, I promise!" 

"Next time I'll steer you towards the other wall instead!" Charlie replied laughing.


End file.
